Woman Loses Wisdom Tooth After Local Dentist’s Failure

• 31-year-old Amy Edwards-Longhurst, from Guildford, Surrey, loses wisdom tooth and is left requiring treatment on multiple teeth after a local dentist failed to spot and treat decay

• Mrs Edwards-Longhurst was left feeling washed-out and traumatised as saga continued for years

• £20,000 awarded in compensation

Mrs Amy Edwards-Longhurst, a 31-year-old hairdresser from Guildford, Surrey, has won £20,000 in compensation from her local dentist with the help of specialist dental negligence solicitors, the Dental Law Partnership, after he failed to treat decay at eight teeth over a three year period. Mrs Edwards-Longhurst was left in severe pain, had to have a wisdom tooth extracted, and will now require extensive treatment at regular intervals for the rest of her life.

In October 2011, Mrs Edwards-Longhurst saw her local dentist Dr Spiridon Nikolaos Roussos of The Dental Practice, 42A London Road , Guildford. After an examination he told Mrs Edwards-Longhurst that she needed a filling and proceeded with the treatment.

“I thought this would be the end of it,” Mrs Edwards-Longhurst recalls. “He mentioned the hole in my tooth was on the large side but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. As far as I was concerned the treatment would resolve the problem.”

But unfortunately for Mrs Edwards-Longhurst this was only the beginning. Her toothache continued and in May 2012 she was back with Dr Roussos.

“This time he restored another one of my teeth,” Mrs Edwards-Longhurst recalls. “But afterwards my teeth were still painful and sensitive. I didn’t understand why as the treatment was supposed to fix it.”
Over the next year Mrs Edwards-Longhurst visited Dr Roussos on several occasions in an attempt to resolve the problem. He undertook examinations, fitted a crown and restored more of her teeth but nothing stopped her toothache.

“None of the treatment made a difference and I kept having toothache and infections,” Mrs Edwards-Longhurst said.
“The more I thought about it the more I thought Dr Roussos must be missing something. I remember thinking he hadn’t taken many X-rays and wondered why.”

Fed-up with the situation, Mrs Edwards-Longhurst saw a new dentist in December 2014. He was shocked by what he found.

“I remember him asking me when I last visited the dentist,” Mrs Edwards-Longhurst recalls. “In other words he was saying ‘your teeth are in such bad condition you can’t have seen a dentist for a long time’. When I told him how regularly I’d been seeing Dr Roussos he was shocked.”

Over a series of appointments her new dentist discovered a multitude of problems with her teeth. It wasn’t long before she had to attend an emergency appointment at a specialist clinic to have a wisdom tooth extracted under sedation.

As well as suffering the trauma of having a wisdom tooth extracted, Mrs Edwards-Longhurst was also left requiring extensive treatment at other teeth because of the damage caused by the decay. After being informed of the expensive corrective treatment required she contacted the Dental Law Partnership.

“It is unbelievable,” Mrs Edwards-Longhurst said. “All the pain I’ve experienced and the problems with my teeth have been caused by Dr Roussos’ consistent failure to treat decay over an extensive period of time. I’ve never liked going to the dentist and I am still going for corrective treatment. Having my wisdom tooth out was stressful, and I’ve been told I will need to have another tooth extracted in the future. The experience has been never ending and I’ve been left feeling washed out, shaky and tired.

Daniel Kinnear of the Dental Law Partnership commented: “The dentist should have taken x-rays and diagnosed decay but he didn’t. As a result, Amy has experienced a great deal of unnecessary pain, trauma and wasted time.”

The Dental Law Partnership took on Mrs Edwards-Longhurst’s case in January 2015. In November 2016 Dr Roussos paid £20,000 in an out of court settlement. The dentist did not admit liability.